JavaScript must be enabled for this page to function properly. However, it seems JavaScript is either disabled or not supported by your browser. Please enable JavaScript by changing your browser options, then try again.

Croc's Eye Galaxy (M94)

Messier 94 (M94, NGC 4736) is a nice spiral galaxy situated in constellation Canes Venatici, and one of the nearer beyond our Local Group of Galaxies.

Spiral galaxy M94 was classified Sab because of its extremely bright inner region. This bright circular disk is surrounded by a ring of active star-forming regions, traced by blue young star clusters in color images, which sharply separates it from a much less bright outer ring of an older yellowish stellar population. In the outskirts, this region however ends again in a ring with moderate star formation activity, so that M94 is one of the relatively rare galaxies in which two "waves" of stellar formation can be observed. In very long exposures, a further very faint ring, about 15 arc minutes across, becomes visible.